The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) started probing on Monday allegations that its Mumbai zonal director, Sameer Wankhede, was part of a ₹25 crore extortion racket after the arrest of actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, in a drug raid.

The vigilance inquiry is headed by NCB’s deputy director general (DDG) of northern region, Gyaneshwar Singh, who rushed to Mumbai to investigate the charges levelled by one of the agency’s own witnesses in the drug case, said people aware of developments. The independent witness, Prabhakar Sail, also claimed in an affidavit that the investigators made him sign blank sheets of paper.

“We have started a vigilance inquiry on the basis of an affidavit available publicly and a report received from our south-west region DDG (Mutha Ashok Jain),” said Gyaneshwar Singh, who is also the agency’s chief vigilance officer.

Asked if Wankhede will continue to head the probe during the course of inquiry, Singh said, “It is too early to say anything. We have just begun. Let us investigate the allegations first.” Wankhede, who landed in Delhi late on Monday, has denied the charges.

The developments came on a day a Mumbai court refused NCB’s plea to dismiss Sail’s affidavit, and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik accused Wankhede of forging his personal documents, a charge denied by the 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service officer.

On October 2, Wankhede led an NCB raid on the cruise ship Cordelia, docked at Mumbai’s International Cruise Terminal, to bust a rave party. The next day, the agency arrested Aryan Khan and charged the 23-year-old with alleged consumption and conspiracy under the stringent Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Aryan is currently in Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail and his bail petition will be heard by the Bombay high court on Tuesday.

Wankhede said that 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of Charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy), and ₹1.33 lakh in cash were recovered from the ship. Since then, 20 people, including Delhi-based event management professionals, Nigerian nationals, and Mumbai-based drug peddlers, have been arrested under various sections of the NDPS Act. Investigators later visited Shah Rukh Khan’s house and called in actor Ananya Panday for questioning after her name showed up in Aryan’s WhatsApp conversations.

The case took a dramatic turn on Sunday when Sail filed an affidavit saying he overheard his employer, KP Gosavi, talking on the phone to someone identified as Sam D’Souza after Aryan was brought to the NCB office. He claimed Gosavi talked about extorting ₹25 crore to settle the case and release Aryan, which could be negotiated to ₹18 crore, with ₹8 crore going to Wankhede. Gosavi had already made the news by being present during the raid, and seemingly assisting NCB officials, despite not being part of any law enforcement agency.

Sail also claimed that he saw Gosavi meeting Shah Rukh Khan’s manager, Pooja Dadlani. and that he was asked to sign 9-10 blank pages in Wankhede’s presence after the raid. Gosavi, who is accused in a 2018 Pune cheating case and was seen clicking selfies with Aryan while the latter was in NCB custody, is on the run after Mumbai police issued a look out notice against him. He told NDTV late on Monday that he intended to surrender in Lucknow and dismissed the allegations against him.

Wankhede, who has courted controversy during previous stints in the customs department, denied the charges and wrote to Mumbai Police commissioner to ensure no legal action was carried out against him in the matter.

People familiar with the NCB inquiry, who didn’t want to be named, said a three-member vigilance team led by Singh will look into all aspects including role of Wankhede, other officers in the NCB unit and witnesses’ claims, considering “the allegations are of serious nature”. An officer said they are likely to call Sail, Gosavi, Wankhede and other officers in the team for recording their statement.

The agency also suffered a setback in the NDPS court after its affidavit asking the court to stop anyone from taking cognizance of Sail’s affidavit was rejected. The court said it cannot pass a blanket order and noted that the case was before the Bombay high court. “Therefore, no such orders can be passed by the court as prayed. Hence, the applications are disposed of,” the court said.

Wankhede also filed an affidavit categorically denying the allegations and claiming that the charges were “not only false but misleading, mischievous and maligning.”

“I was threatened to be arrested and to be dispelled from my service. There is a lurking threat of arrest as it does not suit some vested interest just for conducting and honest and impartial investigation,” he told the court.

The day began with Malik accusing Wankhede of using a fake caste certificate to get government job under reserved quota. Malik – who has previously accused the officer of travelling to Maldives and Dubai to extort money from actors – said Wankhede is Muslim but made a fake scheduled caste certificate. “Forgery by Sameer Dawood Wankhede started from here. The officer, who started his career with forgery, will never work with honesty,” Malik said.

Hours later, Wankhede hit back. He said publishing personal documents was defamatory and an invasion on his privacy. “It is intended to malign me, my family, my father and my late mother. The series of allegations of Hon minister over the last few days have put me and my family under tremendous mental and emotional pressure. I am pained by the nature of personal defamatory , slanderous attacks by the Hon minister without any justification,” the officer said in a statement.

He said his father Dnyandev Kachruji Wankhede was Hindu, and mother Zaheeda, Muslim. “I belong to a composite multi-religious and secular family and I am proud of my heritage,” the officer said.

A copy of the birth certificate issued by Mumbai’s civic body and seen by HT showed the father’s name as Dawood Wankhede and the mother’s name as Zahera Bano.

Malik earlier claimed that Wankhede was shifted to the NCB days after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June 2020 to harass Bollywood actors – a charge denied by the officer. Wankhede led the NCB investigation after Rajput’s alleged suicide and questioned several Bollywood actors.

The latest controversy also took a political turn with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding intervention by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi backing the setting up of a special investigation team (SIT).

State home minister Dilip Walse Patil said he met chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday about the issue.

“I had a brief discussion on the entire issue of drug abuse and NCB’s action as I had met him to discuss some other issue. I have also read Sail’s affidavit. We have accepted his demand and provided police protection. If Sail files a complaint, police will take necessary action. He has visited Sahar police station today, ” Walse Patil told reporters. Sail had asked for police protection earlier, claiming a threat to his life.

The BJP alleged that political figures were behind Sail’s revelations. “It needs to come to the light that who is behind Sail’s statement and in which hotel the statement of Sail recorded? Shielding the drug mafia is the real intention behind it? Is Sail being threatened to become part of the extortion gang of the ruling party? The entire episode needs to be investigated by CBI to check all these links,” said BJP leader Ram Kadam.